Maebara Keiichi
Character Summary Maebara Keiichi is the main protagonist of the first three Question Arcs, Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, and Tatarigoroshi-hen. He is the son of a famous artist, Maebara Ichirō, and recently moved to Hinamizawa after an array of unfortunate and awful events in his hometown, Tokyo. He and his family live in a large house they bought from the Sonozaki family ; and as a result, many of his friends believe that they must be quite rich. However, in reality they're only about middle-class; the house was built large so that it would also house his father's art gallery and allow for clients to visit said gallery. It is assumed that Keiichi is 16 years old, and confirmed that his birthday lies in April. As Higurashi takes place in June, it is most possibly that he is 16. Keiichi is a charismatic boy with a lively attitude, and his talented tongue allowed him to quickly fit in the town and make new friends. In the first arc, Onikakushi-hen, paranoia drives him to murder two of his friends, Sonozaki Mion and Ryūgū Rena, and likewise, he murders Hōjō Satoko's uncle, Hōjō Teppei in'' Tatarigoroshi-hen'', the third arc. However, in subsequent arcs, he gains inner strength and faith in his friends, enough to change the fate of Hinamizawa, as he is able to remember the events of previous worlds through similar events. When in need of a weapon, he is often seen with Hōjō Satoshi's old baseball bat; however, on one occasion in'' Tatarigoroshi-hen he wielded an axe in an attempt to kill Satoko's uncle "for the second time".'' Keiichi often ends up being the 'butt of the jokes' in the club's activities, as the girls like to pick on him. Remarkably, especially Mion and Satoko seem to be fond of teasing him. In one manga, he considers Mion's punishments as 'sexual harassments'; he is often forced to wear embarrassing costumes, typically a dress with a short skirt. Past In the beginning, Keiichi was struggling with his grades in a cram school in Tokyo. An intelligence test however showed that he was very smart, but if the question didn't make sense, as in "Why should one do that?", he wouldn't find it interesting and thus not answer it very well. After the test, he was transferred to another, more gifted school where his grades improved rapidly. He was soon the best in class in every subject, but that resulted in lack of social strength. He was bullied by his jealous classmates, but Keiichi could easily take it as there was only one thing that mattered to him; the praise from his teachers, and more importantly, his parents, and he was given allowance raises as a reward. However as Keiichi started to find school too easy and boring and his high grades became "expected", he felt like getting himself involved in something more exciting. Buying an airsoft gun with the extra allowance, he started shooting at kids with the gun as they went home from school. He was never caught due to his intelligent ways of hiding and sneaking. Parents were asked to never let their children go home alone. One day, however, a young girl was on her own, and Keiichi found her a too easy a target to resist. She turned around before he managed to shoot and was hit in the eye. Her screaming seemed to register with Keiichi, as he froze in horror. He wanted to help her, but couldn't do so without revealing himself and thus ran away. He felt so guilty and panicked that he even researched on what would happen if you shot someone in the eye with an airsoft gun. Keiichi, in the end, confessed to his parents one morning. His parents were greatly upset yet also guilty for not hearing their son's "cry for help". For the sake of a new start, they paid his bail and moved to a quiet town, Hinamizawa. This incident is quite possibly why Keiichi feels extra protective toward his friends, especially Hojo Satoko when she is abused in'' 'Tatarigoroshi-hen'' and'' Minagoroshi-hen''. In Tsumihoroboshi-hen, his background is revealed by Ryūgū Rena as she asked Ōishi Kuraudo about each of her friends. Physical Appearance Keiichi is a slender boy with brown hair and blue/violet(*) eyes. During school, he wears a white collared-shirt over a red t-shirt,black pants, a belt and black shoes, whereas during his free days, he wears a black, sleeveless shirt beneath a red vest, green shorts with a black belt and blue shoes. Relationships Ryūgū Rena Keiichi and Rena are very close friends. They face off against each other in many of the Club's activities, most notably the 'Water Gun Face Off'. They also battle on top of the school's roof in Tsumihoroboshi-hen. Keiichi also likes to "flirt", or make fun of her while they walk to school together. Sonozaki Shion considers Rena to be Sonozaki Mion's rival, due to Keiichi giving the doll to Rena in Watanagashi-hen. In the last episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei, Rena confesses her feelings for him, though she was under influence of the magatamas so this is not considered official. Aside from "flirting" with her, he cares a lot about her, just as he does for his other friends. He calls Rena a "very good friend", and was the one who snapped Rena out of her craziness in Tsumihoroboshi-hen. Sonozaki Mion Keiichi and Mion's relationship is arguably the one most expanded on throughout the series. Keiichi and Mion's relationship is often hinted to be very strong. When Keiichi fails to give Mion a doll he won, saying she wouldn't like it anyway and gives it to Rena, Mion is later seen crying and being upset over this, opening her heart to her twin sister Sonozaki Shion. In Tsumihoroboshi-hen when Keiichi hugs Mion, as an apology for killing her and Rena in Onikakushi-hen, (which neither she nor Rena remembers), she is seen gasping once and blushing, stammering as she speaks. One of the best examples of Keiichi's feelings is during Watanagashi-hen, when Keiichi is about to be tortured by who he believes to be Mion. Instead of resisting he states that if it will soothe the demon inside of 'Mion' she may go ahead. He only wanted the 'demon' to give him back "the best friend I've ever had, give me back my Mion!", and wanted 'Shion' to be forgiven. The only reason for the torture was because of the doll he gave to Rena rather than Mion. Later in ''Matsuribayashi-hen'', Shion whispers in Keiichi's ear that, "Although the person I love is gone, Sis (Mion) still has hers." Their feelings for one another are most clearly shown in ''Miotsukushi-hen'', where the two of them engage in a large amount of flirtation at one point, and have quite a bit of unresolved tension, as well as affection for one another to the point where Keiichi literally dodges bullets in order to see her face again—though his resolve was more-so spurred on by Hanyuu telling him to fight, this was the only reason of multiple she gave him that specified a person. Sonozaki Shion In the beginning, Keiichi does not believe of the existence of a 'Shion', rather believing her to be her twin, Mion. In various scenes where Shion pretends to be Mion, Keiichi appears just as fond of her as he seems of the real Mion, but as soon as she is her usual self again, he does not find her as interesting nor attractive, perhaps with the exception of when she is wearing her work uniform. Hōjō Satoko Keiichi and Satoko seem to be both friends and 'enemies', as Satoko is skilled in making elaborate traps, and she likes to use those skills against Keiichi. Despite this, Satoko does like Keiichi, so far as to call him 'nii-nii' (a cuter term for 'older brother'), as Keiichi resembles her older brother Hojo Satoshi in terms of physical appearance, behavior, and paranoia. It is confirmed in the manga that Satoko more or less treats Keiichi as though she was his older sister, despite that is horribly biologically wrong. Furude Rika For Rika, the presence of Maebara Keiichi is the one of the needed catalysts to help the group to survive and move beyond that fateful time of June, 1983. Keiichi is the one who gives Rika hope, as all worlds where he does not move to Hinamizawa are 'dead ends'. The two are otherwise good friends in general. Rika often 'comforts' Keiichi whenever he loses a club game, petting him on the head and saying "pity pity". Hanyū As Hanyū only appears in the later part of Higurashi Kai, it is hard to determine the relation between her and Keiichi. They do however appear to quickly grow a friendship. Worth noticing is that Keiichi calls her Hanyū-kun at one point. The 'kun' suffix is usually reserved for boys, and this might be a often-overlooked tease as Hanyū refers to herself with 'boku' rather than 'watashi', which is usually reserved for boys. (i.e. Boku wa Hanyū desu—I am Hanyū) Lineage Father: Maebara Ichirou Mother: Maebara Aiko Trivia *In Onikakushi-hen, it is implied that Keiichi became afraid of drugs after hearing the story about the drug addict who killed an adult woman. *He always refers to Mion as "the best friend I've ever had". *Keiichi has been shown within many times to appear a pervert, especially during club activities and the first episode of Rei. In the manga however, it is revealed that his perversion is mainly to make fun of his friends; in ''Watanagashi-hen'', he even 'saves' Shion and the other waitresses from a large group of perverted men, clearly angered by their intentions. He also, in same manga arc, is rather disturbed by Oishi Kuraudo when he brings him porn magazines at the hospital. *Whenever his friends are threatened, he feels very concerned and protective over them, but he's also not afraid to defend himself if necessary. *His eye color changes between the game, manga and anime. *In ''Minagoroshi-hen, ''Rika, in her True Personality voice, said that Keiichi didn't move to Hinamizawa in two worlds a hundred years ago (in Rika's time perspective). Those two worlds, as described by Rika, were "incredibly sad, doomed worlds". *By taking apart his full name and combining the definitions of each separate character, Keiichi's name could literally mean, "The One and Only K1", which can be a reference to his unmatched dynamic and hotblooded personality that he is famous in Hinamizawa and Okinomiya for (also a reference to his famous nicknames of 'K' and 'K1'). Images Ke.jpg|Keiichi as he appears in the sound novels Cast ph11.jpg|Goki Maeda as Keiichi k1_zensin.jpg|Keiichi as seen in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Jan|link=Jan keiichi.jpg|Keiichi's appearance in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni maebara_keiichi_3031.png|Keiichi smiling KeiichiMion3.jpg|Keiichi and Mion Keiichi-pre-death.png|Before the death of Keiichi in Minagoroshi Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:The Club